Olympic sailing: After fibula fracture: Lutz/Beucke fight for Olympic dream

The accident had already occurred on New Year's Eve afternoon in Argentina: Susann Beucke fell onto the boom of her skiff on the second day of training in Buenos Aires and twisted her ankle so badly that she broke her right fibula (calf bone). Luckily for her, it was a straight fracture. Thanks to good contacts with Argentinian Olympic champion Santi Lange and his team, Susann Beucke was able to be operated on by a surgeon known to Lange just three hours after the accident. A permanently inserted plate has been helping her to heal ever since.

The initial grief over the low blow in the middle of the national Olympic competition, which Lutz/Beucke have been leading with confidence since their furious performance at the 2019 World Championships in Auckland and the fifth place they achieved there, has long since given way to the old fighting spirit. "I only cried like a castle dog for the first two days," recalls Beucke. Following the motto "Now more than ever", Tina Lutz and Susann Beucke have adapted their plans to the new situation and done everything humanly possible to ensure that the accident does not thwart the duo's third Olympic attempt.

While Susann Beucke from Hannoverscher Yacht-Club pushed ahead with her rehabilitation in Argentina, Tina Lutz from Chiemsee Yacht-Club reorganised the programme ahead of the 2020 World Championship (part 2 of 3 of the Olympic qualifiers for the German 49erFX sailors) starting on 10 February in Australia, sounded out replacement skippers and has been training on site with Lotta Wiemers (formerly Görge) for just under a week. Susann Beucke, who also landed there today, attests: "Tina and Lotta sail really well together and have already won a few training races."

After the initial frustration, Beucke herself has made impressively rapid progress with her healing process in Argentina. She was also helped by the physiotherapist of Santi Lange's Olympic foreskipper Cecilia Carranza Saroli, who wants to bring this mission to a happy end and will be joining the German FX team in Australia in a few days' time. Beucke says: "I've been crutch-free for a week now and will soon be able to stand on my toes again. That's much better than any prognosis." In the course of her recovery process, Beucke has kept her foot in an "ice shoe" for half a day, at night in a kind of magnetic tube that is supposed to stimulate ion movements in the body.

In the meantime, she has already completed two short sailing missions (still in Argentina). A current X-ray on 3 February should provide precise information about how many "bridges" the bone has been able to build and whether Beucke might be able to take part in the World Championships after all. Experts usually assume that such a fracture takes six to eight weeks to heal. However, with young, well-trained competitive athletes and an intensive and positive process, it can also be quicker. "I'm continuing with my intensive rehab programme. The orthopaedist will say on 3 February whether I can sail or not. We'll decide that without emotion."

Until then, Sanni Beucke wants to support her team in Australia, fight and hope. "Tina has managed the campaign completely on her own over the past few weeks, so I was able to focus one hundred per cent on healing. That was very demanding for us as athletes and as people. I think we have grown as a team in this task. It was a real shock at the beginning and we struggled, but we are now back on track. Our big goal is six months away."

Tina Lutz and Susann Beucke are well ahead of Berlin's Vicky Jurczok and Anika Lorenz in the national Olympic qualifiers. However, Beucke knows that her team cannot rest on its laurels with a total of three elimination regattas (2019 World Championships, 2020 World Championships, Trofeo Princesa Sofía). Her rivals are also known for their fighting qualities. Nevertheless, with fifth place at the 2019 World Championships, Lutz/Beucke scored 16 points for their elimination account. Jurczok/Lorenz, on the other hand, finished the World Championships in a disappointing 27th place with no points. On the basis of this cushion, the battle for just one Olympic ticket in the women's skiff discipline will enter round two on 10 February. With these interesting questions as an omen: Can Susann Beucke sail herself? Is that not the case: Can Tina Lutz, with substitute foresailor Lotta Wiemers, who has not been active in the Olympic sport for three years but performed excellently during her preparations in Australia, build on the level of performance shown at the 2019 World Championships and defend her elimination lead? And how will Jurczok/Lorenz react to the situation? Will the 2016 Olympic bronze medallists return to their usual strong form?

At the same time, the German 49er sailors, who also have their sights set on their second Olympic elimination, will be challenged. Here, runners-up Erik Heil and Thomas Plößel from the NRV Olympic Team are clearly ahead of their sparring partners Justus Schmid/Max Boehme (Kieler Yacht-Club) and Jakob Meggendorfer/Andreas Spranger (Bayerischer Yacht-Club). At the same time, the mixed catamaran crews in the Nacra 17 with the top team Paul Kohlhoff/Alica Stuhlemmer (Kieler Yacht-Club) will be racing off Geelong in the same area. From a German perspective, things will be even more interesting in this second week of February, because not far from Geelong, Germany's best Laser sailors and Laser Radial athletes will also be competing in their World Championships in the Melbourne area of the Sandringham Yacht Club. Philipp Buhl from Segelclub Alpsee-Immenstadt and Svenja Weger from Potsdamer Yacht-Club are among those competing there. Both would love to ring in the 2020 Olympic year with a strong result.